Archive for the ‘General’ Category

What’s going on here? This blog, like all first attempts, may end up being a throwaway. I’m totally new to the medium, and there’s a BCS saying: “Prvi mačići se u vodu bacaju” – “The first batch of kittens is drowned”, meaning, first attempts should be written off in advance. Yet I hope it will be fulfilling to write, and interesting to read. (BCS stands for Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian. As these Languages Formerly Known As Serbo-Croatian are sometimes hard to distinguish, I use this acronym it whenever it’s not 100% sure which one is in question…)

Then also, the blog is likely to be controversial and somewhat bombastic. This should not perhaps come as a surprise. I like to think that I’ve been around – growing up in 70’s and 80’s socialist Yugoslavia, spent the 90’s and the 00’s going back and forth between the U.S. and Croatia, leading, in many ways, several different lives. Along the way I’ve picked up a number of perspectives that cannot be easily reconciled – and when juxtaposed, the results can sometimes be rough. My hope and one of my aims with this blog is to bring out some of the contradictions, whittle away at them, and perhaps get a glimpse of something new and improved…

In particular, although I have fared fairly well as an educated (ex-)liberal in the U.S., perhaps due to my upbringing in socialist Yugoslavia, perhaps out of witnessing post-socialist transition in Croatia, I have come to some fairly radical positions. Living in the rich world too often I find myself in a one-person minority defending them. This is the place, then, where I hope to outline some of these views and receive feedback on them.

To those who know me as a person with a generally positive outlook some of my views may come as a surprise. They may sound simplistic, hopeless or paranoid, they will frequently be inconsistent, and in some ways, they are bound to be hypocritical, as my talk will certainly venture far beyond where my walk has a chance to reach. I acknowledge this. My thinking is, I’ve been mulling a lot of this stuff for years, I’m tiptoeing into middle age now, and it’s well past time for it to come out. Although some of this may have been more appropriate to discuss at the age 21, I had better stuff to do then, and I’ve got a bit more under my belt to discuss now.

So, since some of this stuff may be rough, a few disclaimers are due. First, I am writing as a private individual. I am currently a graduate student researcher, and though I expect to take risks to say what I think needs to be said, I will also need to take precautions not to unduly affect my work. I will write about science and academia, but I’ll try to keep anything directly related to publishable research out of here. If need be, I’ll start a separate page with academic content.

Second, though I often tend to preach, I write to be challenged and criticized. I will be very thankful for any feedback.

Third, although what I write will sometimes offend some readers, I do not write expressly to offend. I believe it is sometimes important to use strong language to stake out positions – when I see a square, if I can help it, I’ll call it a square rather than an equilateral right-angled parallelogram. If you are offended by what I say, please write – I will attempt to respond by refining, defending or modifying my arguments.

Finally, however radical some of my views may be, I have no ambitions to being a rabble-rouser. I intend to cry foul when I think it necessary, but my aim is to peek behind some barriers that prevent us from, well, dreaming a bit more. I do hope this will help create space to dream up some creative and perhaps practical things. In the off-chance someone wants to use them to motivate action, as long as it is in the spirit of solidarity, awareness and non-violence, I’ll be honored. The blog is common property under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license – if you like something I say, by all means make it your own.